107 Fun Facts About College Mascot

Uga, the live mascot of the University of Georgia, has always been owned by which Savannah family?

The Seilers were given the first Uga as a wedding present in 1956; past Ugas lie in a mausoleum at Sanford Stadium, and fans chant 'Damn good dog' when the collar passes to a successor.

Before a 2019 bowl game, Texas's steer Bevo broke loose and charged at which rival live mascot?

Georgia's Uga got clear as Bevo XV broke free of his handlers before kickoff, scattering the reporters gathered around the two mascots; 15th-ranked Texas then upset fifth-ranked Georgia 28–21.

Colorado's Ralphie the Buffalo is always what?

A female bison is always chosen for size and temperament: a male can weigh 1,000 pounds more and stand a foot taller, and even she reaches 25 mph on her run around Folsom Field.

How was LSU's first Mike the Tiger paid for in 1936?

25 cents from every student raised the $750 that bought a cub from the Little Rock Zoo; he arrived as Sheik and was renamed for Mike Chambers, the athletic trainer most responsible for bringing him to campus.

Where does Texas A&M's mascot Reveille rank in the Corps of Cadets?

At the very top, five silver diamonds: one more than the Corps commander's four, so a cadet whose bed she falls asleep on has to sleep somewhere else, because she outranks him.

Brutus, Ohio State's mascot since 1965, is an anthropomorphic what?

A buckeye nut, from Ohio's state tree, won out after the idea of a live buck deer was rejected as impossible; students Ray Bourhis and Sally Huber built the first one for 1965 homecoming.

Michigan State's teams were known as what before becoming the Spartans?

The Aggies, of Michigan Agricultural College, were due to become the 'Michigan Staters' after a naming contest, until sportswriter George Alderton found that too clumsy and picked 'Spartans' from the other entries.

Under a 1947 handshake deal, Oregon's Duck mascot is modelled on which cartoon character?

Donald Duck was licensed on a handshake between athletic director Leo Harris and Walt Disney; after Disney died the only proof was a photo of him in an Oregon jacket bearing the Duck, so a written contract followed in 1973.

What was the name of the live white duck that appeared at Oregon games in the 1920s?

Puddles lived on the nearby Millrace and was escorted to games by his fraternity-house neighbours; he and his offspring kept coming until the early 1940s, when Humane Society complaints ended the live-duck era.

Western Kentucky's Big Red is best described as what?

A red, furry blob is what student Ralph Carey sketched in 1979 to give WKU a mascot like no other; the school later sued an Italian broadcaster for $250 million, claiming its puppet Gabibbo was a copy.

What kind of tree is the Stanford Tree?

A sequoia: the Tree stands for El Palo Alto, the tall coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) on the university seal; Stanford has no official mascot, and its team name Cardinal is the colour, not the bird.

Which nickname did Stanford's teams officially carry from 1930 until 1972?

The Indians name went in 1972 after 55 Native American students and staff petitioned President Richard Lyman to discontinue the symbol for good; the student senate voted to drop it, and Lyman agreed.

Syracuse's fuzzy, round mascot Otto is an anthropomorphic what?

An orange: Otto is a walking citrus fruit, though Syracuse's teams take the name Orange from the school colour; when a university committee recommended a wolf instead in 1995, students rallied and the chancellor kept Otto.

Wisconsin's teams took their animal name because the state's early lead miners did what?

Lived in tunnels 'like badgers': lead miners of the 1820s burrowed into hillsides for winter shelter. A live badger mascot later proved too vicious to control and was retired to a Madison zoo.

UC Santa Cruz students voted in 1986 to make what their official mascot?

The Banana Slug won the 1986 student vote, and with it a chancellor who had thought the Sea Lion more dignified; most students had kept rooting for the Slugs after UCSC took the Sea Lions name to join the NCAA.

Before Florida State home games, Osceola rides the horse Renegade to midfield and plants what in the turf?

A flaming spear has opened games since 1978, when alumnus Bill Durham launched the ritual after obtaining permission from the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which still approves the regalia Osceola wears.

UC Irvine students voted in 1965 for which mascot, inspired by the comic strip B.C. and its cry of 'Zot!'?

The Anteater reached the ballot because two water polo players, unimpressed by choices like the roadrunner and the unicorn, lobbied for it; 'Zot!' is the sound the strip's anteater makes as it snaps up its prey.

Which unofficial mascot have Delta State University's students embraced over the official Statesman?

The Fighting Okra, a scowling pod in boxing gloves, is unofficial: the teams are the Statesmen, named for the state house speaker who helped bring the college to Cleveland, Mississippi.

The Evergreen State College's Geoduck is what kind of animal?

A clam: the geoduck, said 'gooey-duck', is the world's largest burrowing clam, so big it cannot fit inside its own shell, and Evergreen's Latin motto, Omnia Extares, means 'Let it all hang out'.

Arkansas–Monticello's men's teams are named for which crop pest, with the women's teams called the Cotton Blossoms?

The Boll Weevils, named for the cotton-eating beetle, won fame from 1939 as the 'Wandering Weevils', a football team that played for fun rather than victories and toured the country putting on a show.

Chief Illiniwek, the University of Illinois symbol retired in 2007, wore regalia from which nation rather than the Illini?

The Sioux: the last outfit came from Oglala elder Frank Fools Crow, who presented it at a 1982 football game; in January 2007 his tribe's leaders asked for it back and demanded an end to the Chief's dance.

What pulls Oklahoma's Sooner Schooner across the field after a score?

Two white ponies, Boomer and Sooner, pull the scaled-down Conestoga wagon; at the 1985 Orange Bowl its victory lap for a field goal already wiped out by a penalty cost 15 more yards, and Oklahoma's longer retry was blocked.

Tennessee's live mascot Smokey is which breed?

A Bluetick Coonhound has held the job since 1953; Smokey II was dognapped by Kentucky students in 1955, paraded at their pep rally in a blanket marked with a 'K', and returned just before kickoff.

Auburn's teams are the Tigers, so which bird is named in the school's famous two-word battle cry?

An eagle: 'War Eagle' is the battle cry and a greeting, never the team name, as Auburn has been the Tigers since 1892; before home games an eagle soars around Jordan-Hare Stadium as the crowd roars the cry.

Which Ivy League university's bulldog mascot, Handsome Dan, dates back to 1889?

Yale's first Handsome Dan was bought by a football player in 1889 and won first prize at the Westminster dog show; he now sits stuffed in a sealed glass case in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

Miami's Hurricanes chose the ibis as mascot because, in folklore, the bird does what?

Last to flee and first to return: folklore holds that the ibis takes shelter only at the final moment before a hurricane and reappears first once it passes, so other birds are said to look to it for leadership.

Purdue's official mascot, the Boilermaker Special, is built to look like what?

A locomotive: the Special is a road-going train that students drive down the highway to away games, the brainchild of pharmacy student Israel Selkowitz, who wanted a mascot honouring Purdue's engineering heritage.

Penn State's Nittany Lion was invented on the spot by a baseball player visiting which rival's campus?

Princeton showed off its tiger before a 1904 game, so Penn State third baseman Joe Mason made up an unbeaten Nittany Mountain Lion to top it; in 1907 he pushed the idea in a campus humour magazine.

Arizona State students voted in 1946 to replace which animal with the Sun Devil?

The Bulldog gave way to the Sun Devil in a 1946 student vote; two years later Sparky was drawn by a former Disney illustrator, who is rumoured to have given the devil the face of his old boss, Walt Disney.

Iowa State picked a cardinal costume because what was too hard to depict?

A cyclone was too hard to turn into a costume, so in 1954 Iowa State unveiled a bird drawn from its cardinal-and-gold colours at a homecoming pep rally; a naming contest then christened him Cy.

SMU's live mascot Peruna, a black Shetland pony, is named after what?

A patent medicine: Peruna was a popular tonic laced with alcohol, and SMU's fight song already bore its name when the band director introduced the first feisty black pony at a 1932 pep rally.

Navy's mascot Bill is which kind of animal?

A goat named El Cid, the mascot of the USS New York, was brought ashore for the 1893 Army game; Navy won, and the midshipmen feted him along with the team.

Alabama's teams are the Crimson Tide, so which animal is their costumed mascot Big Al?

An elephant: in 1930 sportswriter Everett Strupper wrote of a fan yelling 'Hold your horses, the elephants are coming!' as Alabama's big varsity stamped out, and the 'Red Elephants' label stuck.

After its live badger proved too vicious, Wisconsin's yearbook passed off which animal, named Regdab, as a 'badger'?

A raccoon named Regdab, badger spelled backwards, was billed by the Badger Yearbook as a 'badger in a raccoon coat'; the real badger had kept escaping its handlers and was retired to a Madison zoo.

Ohio State students built the first Brutus costume for 1965 homecoming out of which material?

Papier-mâché formed the first Brutus, built by students Ray Bourhis and Sally Huber at a sorority house on a $50 budget; it proved too fragile for Ohio weather and was soon replaced in fibreglass.

Georgia Tech's insect mascot Buzz stands for which team nickname?

Yellow Jackets first meant the fans, who wore yellow coats to early games; coach John Heisman asked in 1905 that his teams carry the name, and the insect followed in a newspaper cartoon a year later.

The University of Akron's Zips take their name from what?

Zippers, a Goodrich rubber overshoe made in Akron, won a campus naming contest that earned freshman Margaret Hamlin $10; the athletic director trimmed the name to Zips in 1950.

Maryland's Testudo is what kind of animal?

A diamondback terrapin was football coach Curley Byrd's pick in 1932; in 1947 Johns Hopkins students stole and buried the bronze statue, and Maryland students laid siege to a Hopkins dormitory until it was dug up and returned.

Nebraska's Herbie Husker is depicted as what?

A burly farmer in overalls began as a cartoon that Texas artist Dirk West drew for the 1974 Cotton Bowl; a Nebraska official spotted it on a press box wall and hired West to turn it into Herbie.

Which school's live mascot is a Rough Collie?

Texas A&M's first Reveille was a stray that cadets hit with their car in 1931 and hid in a dorm; she barked when a bugler blew reveille, which named her. Purebred Rough Collies took over with Reveille III.

Georgia Tech's Ramblin' Wreck is what?

A 1930 Ford Model A Sport Coupe in old gold and white has led the football team onto the field since 1961, after a dean talked a pilot into parting with the car he had restored for his son.

Duke's Blue Devils are named after what?

French mountain troops of WWI, the Chasseurs Alpins or 'Blue Devils', lent the name; no clear favourite emerged from the nominations, so the student newspaper's editors simply began using it in 1922.

What is Dartmouth's unofficial mascot, invented by a humour magazine in 2003?

Keggy the Keg, a walking beer keg, debuted at Homecoming in 2003, dreamed up by two Jack-O-Lantern writers after a student poll for a new mascot ended with the moose losing to 'no mascot'.

The University of Louisville picked the cardinal as a mascot because the bird is what?

Kentucky's state bird is the northern cardinal, picked as Louisville's mascot after 1913; the school's red and black colours came later, and Louie now skydives into the stadium before home football games.

Delaware's mascot YoUDee is which creature?

A blue hen: Delaware's state bird recalls Revolutionary War soldiers from Kent County who carried Blue Hen gamecocks to camp and fought so fiercely that they were compared to their fighting birds.

What is Rhode Island School of Design's unofficial mascot?

Scrotie was built in 2001 to revive interest in RISD's hockey team, the Nads, so named to let the crowd shout 'Go Nads!'; the school's basketball team is the Balls.

Washington State's Butch is what animal?

A cougar became Washington State's symbol in 1919, when writers likened the team's speed and tenacity to one; live cats named Butch followed from 1927 until 1978, when the last died and a costume took over.

Oski the Bear, who replaced unruly live bear cubs in 1941, is the mascot of which university?

UC Berkeley student Rocky Rockwell wanted a bear that couldn't grow big and unruly, so he stitched a suit from two pairs of old pants; the name comes from a Cal cheer, the Oski Yell.

West Virginia's Mountaineer mascot, a student chosen each year, has worn which outfit since 1937?

A buckskin suit, tailored afresh for each year's winner, has been the look since Boyd 'Slim' Arnold first wore one in 1937; the Mountaineer also totes a rifle, and men in the role customarily grow a beard.

Which university's costumed gamecock, Cocky, was elected to the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2026?

South Carolina's Cocky was booed off the field at his 1980 debut as not dignified enough, yet went on to win national mascot titles and a place among Sports Illustrated's best college football mascots in 2019.

Tennessee's Smokey won the mascot job in 1953 when he did what each time the students cheered?

Threw his head back and answered: Smokey, the last dog introduced at a halftime contest, gave voice at every cheer until the stadium was in an uproar and the Pep Club had found its mascot.

Washington State's mascot Butch, first a live gift from the governor in 1927, was named after whom?

The team's quarterback, Herbert 'Butch' Meeker, stood just 5 feet 5 but was hailed in the yearbook as the fightingest little player ever to wear the uniform, so Governor Roland Hartley suggested the name.

Which university's white horse Traveler gallops around the stadium after every touchdown, ridden by a costumed warrior?

USC found Traveler when a student and an events director spotted Richard Saukko riding the white horse in the Rose Parade; a one-time gig at the 1961 season opener drew such cheers that he became the official mascot.

The students who sprint alongside Colorado's Ralphie the Buffalo hold which status?

Varsity athletes: the Ralphie Handlers are a team of student-athletes, and it takes five of them to run a mascot that can reach 25 mph, four guiding from the sides and one behind controlling the speed.

Which all-male spirit group maintains and drives Oklahoma's Sooner Schooner?

The RUF/NEKS date to 1915 and also look after the ceremonial shotguns; the story goes that an elderly fan at a basketball game told some rowdy students to 'sit down and be quiet, you roughnecks'.

The Stanford Tree, never the university's official mascot, is a member of which campus group?

The marching band counts the Tree as one of its own, and the student inside wears a self-designed costume; Stanford itself has no official mascot at all.

Georgia's costumed mascot Hairy Dawg debuted at which bowl game, where Georgia sealed a national title?

The 1981 Sugar Bowl was the deadline coach Vince Dooley set on seeing the sketches, so designer Tom Sapp stitched Hairy Dawg in three weeks; he was drawn to intimidate, unlike Fluffie, the cuddly grey dog before him.

TCU's Horned Frog mascot is modelled on a spiky Texas native that is really which kind of reptile?

A lizard, the Texas horned lizard, is the animal behind the name, and it can shoot blood from its eye sockets to scare off predators.

Jumbo, the Tufts mascot, was a circus elephant whose stuffed hide was donated by which showman?

P. T. Barnum gave Tufts the mounted hide of his star attraction. After a 1975 fire destroyed it, the salvaged ashes went into a peanut butter jar that athletes treat as a lucky charm.

Wichita State's mascot WuShock is a bundle of which crop that early students harvested for pay?

Wheat is the crop: early students earned money shocking, or harvesting, it in nearby fields, which is why Wichita State's teams are the Shockers.

Which animal has been the live mascot of Army's West Point teams since an officer chose one in 1899?

A mule was the obvious pick because the animals had hauled Army gear for generations, and the officer wanted an answer to Navy's own live mascot.

Missouri's costumed tiger mascot is named after which US president?

Harry S. Truman lent his name to Truman the Tiger in 1986, though a Bengal tiger had been Missouri's symbol since the 1890s.

Boston University's terrier is named for which Gone with the Wind character, a pun on scarlet?

Rhett Butler supplied the name in 1983: the character's love for Scarlett O'Hara made a neat joke about the university's main colour.

Temple University's teams are the Owls because Temple began in 1880s Philadelphia as what?

A night school for young people of limited means is how Temple began, so the nocturnal owl became its symbol, and Temple was the first US college to adopt the bird.

Which green vegetable is the fighting mascot of Arizona's Scottsdale Community College?

An artichoke named Artie represents the two-year campus, whose teams are officially the Fighting Artichokes.

Vanderbilt's teams take which naval rank as a nickname, after shipping tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt?

Commodore was Cornelius Vanderbilt's own nickname, so the mascot always appears as an 1880s naval officer, complete with side whiskers and a cutlass.

The University of Dayton's teams are the Flyers in honour of which hometown aviation pioneers?

The Wright brothers built much of their first powered aircraft in a Dayton bicycle shop, and the team name echoes that Wright Flyer.

Which bird of prey did the Air Force Academy's first graduating class vote in as the live mascot?

A falcon won the vote of the Class of 1959, and each performing bird is named by the cadet falconer who trains it.

Which university's buckskin-clad mascot, a student chosen each year, carries a muzzle-loading rifle?

West Virginia has picked a student Mountaineer annually since the 1930s, and nobody but the mascot and an alternate is allowed to fire the rifle.

Which university's mythical bird mascot is named for free-state fighters of the 1850s?

Kansas embraced the Jayhawker label once worn by its free-state militias, and a student cartoonist first drew the bird for the campus paper in 1912.

Virginia Tech's HokieBird, created in 1981, is an anthropomorphic version of which large bird?

A turkey is the bird behind the costume, because Virginia Tech's teams were known as the Fighting Gobblers long before Hokies caught on.

Which university's Masked Rider, in a black gaucho hat, leads the football team out on horseback?

Texas Tech made the Masked Rider official at the 1954 Gator Bowl, where the crowd reportedly sat in stunned silence as horse and rider rushed onto the field.

Which Jersey City university is the only NCAA Division I school with a peacock as its mascot?

Saint Peter's chose the peacock as a symbol of resurrection, and the bird also recalls Pavonia, an early name for Jersey City meaning land of the peacock.

Florida State's Osceola plants a flaming spear at midfield while riding which Appaloosa horse?

Renegade has carried Osceola since the pair debuted in 1978, and the rider's regalia is designed and approved by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Tulane's teams are the Green Wave, but mascot Riptide is which bird from Louisiana's state flag?

A pelican named Riptide replaced a costumed wave nicknamed Gumby, although students had voted overwhelmingly for the sea god Poseidon.

Washington's live Husky mascot Dubs actually belongs to which larger sled-dog breed?

Alaskan Malamute is the breed, picked as the largest and strongest of the husky family, and every Dubs since 2009 has led the football team onto the field.

Before the Leprechaun became official in 1965, Notre Dame's mascots were dogs of which breed?

Irish Terrier dogs, usually named Clashmore Mike, represented Notre Dame from 1930, when the first was presented to coach Knute Rockne.

Which Atlantic Coast Conference university's mascot wears a top hat and tails as the Demon Deacon?

Wake Forest got the nickname in 1923 from a student editor praising the football team's devilish play, and the first costumed Deacon rode onto the field on a rival's live ram.

Which university chose the beaver as its mascot in 1914 because the animal is nature's engineer?

MIT picked the beaver at a 1914 alumni dinner in New York, and the mascot's name, Tim, is simply the school's initials spelled backwards.

Rameses, a live sheep with horns painted sky blue, attends which university's football games?

North Carolina's head cheerleader bought the first ram for $25 in 1924, inspired by star fullback Jack Merritt's nickname, the Battering Ram.

Coastal Carolina's Chanticleers are named for a rooster in which classic of English literature?

The Canterbury Tales stars Chanticleer in the Nun's Priest's Tale, where the vain rooster is seized by a flattering fox and then escapes from its jaws.

Why did Michigan stop carrying its live wolverines Biff and Bennie into the stadium on game days?

They grew too fierce for the players carrying them, coach Fielding Yost admitted, so Biff went to a campus zoo where students could still visit him.

Southern Illinois teams are named for which hunting dog, since the region is nicknamed Little Egypt?

Saluki, the royal dog of ancient Egypt, replaced the plain old Maroons in 1951 to play on southern Illinois's long-standing regional nickname.

Saint Louis University's teams are named for which good-luck doll, patented in 1908?

The Billiken was dreamed up by Missouri illustrator Florence Pretz, and the university took the name because the grinning figure was said to resemble its football coach.

Which animal was Ole Miss's on-field mascot between Colonel Reb and Tony the Landshark?

A black bear served until 2018, when Ole Miss switched to the Landshark, a celebration started by linebacker Tony Fein in 2008.

Georgetown's Hoyas are named for a mixed Greek and Latin chant that translates roughly as what?

What rocks is the usual translation of Hoya Saxa, a cheer that may have praised the football team's stubborn defence or the stone wall around campus.

Which Asian mammal, also called a bearcat, did Cincinnati Zoo adopt in 2008 as a Bearcats symbol?

A binturong named Lucy became a regular before home football games, though the nickname began in 1914 as a cheerleader's pun on fullback Teddy Baehr's surname.

The University of New Mexico's teams are the Lobos, the Spanish word for which animal?

Wolf is the meaning, and in the 1920s a live pup attended every football game until it bit a child who had teased it.

Which university's Tiger mascot does a push-up for every point on the scoreboard after each score?

Clemson's Tiger has done the push-ups since 1978, and in an 82-24 rout during the 1981 title season the mascot got through 465 of them.

Elon University's teams are named for which mythical creature, a nod to a 1923 campus fire?

The phoenix was adopted in 2000 because trustees had vowed to make Elon rise from the ashes after the blaze; until then the teams were the Fightin' Christians.

Which school with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever mascot scored the men's NCAA tournament's first 16-over-1 upset?

UMBC stunned top-seeded Virginia 74-54 in 2018, and its retriever mascot is the official state dog of Maryland.

Presbyterian College's Blue Hose nickname comes from which part of its early football uniform?

Socks are the answer: hose is an old word for stockings, and the college's footballers wore blue ones in the early twentieth century.

Which Philadelphia university's Hawk mascot never stops flapping its wings during a game?

Saint Joseph's Hawk flaps an estimated 3,500 times a game and keeps going straight through halftime.

Amherst College replaced Lord Jeff in 2017 with which mascot, whose skeleton is in a campus museum?

A mammoth won a 2017 ranked-choice vote, thanks to the Columbian mammoth skeleton an Amherst professor excavated in Florida in the 1920s.

Whittier College's teams carry which literary nickname, honouring namesake John Greenleaf Whittier?

The Poets honour John Greenleaf Whittier, the Quaker poet and abolitionist, and future NFL coach George Allen led their football team in the 1950s.

Marshall's Thundering Herd nickname stuck thanks to a popular 1920s western novel by which author?

Zane Grey's novel The Thundering Herd was a hit at the time, and the buffalo mascot Marco takes his name from Marshall College, as it was then known.

Before a 1912 newspaper report dubbed them Trojans, USC's athletes were known as the Fighting what?

Methodists was the unofficial tag until a Los Angeles Times sportswriter compared the athletes' fight to that of the Trojans of antiquity.

Pittsburg State claims to be the only US college with which great ape, named Gus, as its mascot?

A gorilla named Gus represents the Division II school, whose 2004 football team went 14-1 and reached the national title game.

Which Ohio Jesuit university has two mascots, the swordsman D'Artagnan and a fuzzy Blue Blob?

Xavier added the Blue Blob in 1985, when its spirit squad decided the sword-carrying Musketeer needed a more audience-friendly partner.

Which Massachusetts college's teams are the Ephs, represented by a purple cow mascot?

Williams shortens founder Ephraim Williams's first name to get Ephs, and the cow echoes a student humour magazine launched in 1907.

Before becoming the Huskies in 1922, University of Washington teams were officially known as what?

The Sun Dodgers lasted only two years: Seattle newspapers complained that nobody knew what the name meant, and a wooden statue called Sunny Boy served as mascot.

Which university's nickname arose when writers said its 1917 basketball squad vandalized opponents?

Idaho coach Hec Edmundson's team defended so ferociously that a student reporter tagged the players Vandals, and the name became official in 1921.

Before a sportswriter began calling them Cornhuskers in 1899, Nebraska's teams were known as what?

The Bugeaters, a jab at an 1870s drought when farmers purportedly ate insects to survive, so annoyed sportswriter Cy Sherman that he began using Cornhuskers instead.

Rice's owl mascot was named Sammy in 1917 after students hired whom to recover the stolen canvas owl?

A detective, hired privately with pooled student money, found the kidnapped mascot and reported back in a coded telegram that used the name Sammy for the first time.

Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns unveiled a mascot in 2000 that was a walking version of which hot pepper?

Cayenne, a staple spice of the Acadiana region, wore a different uniform for each sport until budget troubles sent the mascot into apparent exile around 2010.

Oklahoma State's Pistol Pete is modelled on which real cowboy, spotted leading a parade in 1923?

Frank Eaton caught students' eyes at a Stillwater parade just as the college, then Oklahoma A&M, was looking to replace its tiger mascot.

Oklahoma's Sooners are named for settlers who did what before the 1889 Land Rush officially began?

Staked claims early is right: Sooners slipped into the Unassigned Lands ahead of the legal start, some hiding in ditches overnight to grab the best plots.